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Good Ride in Badlands: The Maah Daah Hey Trail, North Dakota

Riding the Maah Daah Hey Trails involves more than 160 miles and 13,000 feet of climbing and descending over remote, flat-topped buttes, vast grasslands, and wide-open cattle ranges through Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Little Missouri National Grasslands.

If the Maah Daah Hey was in Utah or Colorado, it might rank as the country’s most popular trail. Instead, this 160-mile-long swath of singletrack rambles across the remote badlands of North Dakota, far from the mountain bike masses.

Much of the trail is formed from betonite clay, which makes for a fast and smooth surface. But this is no cakewalk: Riding the Maah Daah Hey involves more than 13,000 feet of climbing and descending. "You're in a constant state of up or down," says Nancy Morlock of Escape Adventures, which runs multi-day trips on the trail.

The trail’s remote location and formidable length make solo missions difficult. But you can cruise unencumbered by joining one of Escape’s trips. Guides will lead you between pre-stocked camps, shuttle your gear and even tune your bike each night, leaving you free to groove on the strangely scenic wide-open spaces.

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